On Wednesday, Marthe Hippolyte, 59, of Wellington, Florida was sentenced to 30 months in prison. On January 25, Hippolyte pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Travel Act.

As the owner of Turning Point Sober Home Inc. and a related marketing company, through which she operated several sober living residences in Florida, Hippolyte accepted approximately $254,000 in kickbacks and bribes, often disguised as management fees, from Kenneth Chatman, the operator of Reflections Treatment Center (RTC), a treatment center that purported to operate as a licensed substance abuse treatment center. 

In exchange for the kickbacks and bribes, Hippolyte helped bring in patients from outside Florida who could be referred to RTC and required residents of Turning Point’s sober homes to travel to RTC several times per week to attend purported substance abuse treatment sessions and submit to urine drug testing. 

For the residents referred to RTC by Hippolyte, Chatman and others billed private insurers $4.5 million for substance abuse and bodily fluid testing that was medically unnecessary, not reimbursable, and not provided as represented.